Mooseys Country Garden Forums

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: goose
Subject: Hopping Gardener
Posted: 10 May '08 10:06 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

Footloose and Fancyfree? Jacks Thread - Summer on Sequoia
1 Feb '08 8:54 am

As to the foot, my friends & family have had a good laugh over it as it was a Weta that caused it. I was cleaning windows outside,using the kitchen step stool. Holding on with one arm and cleaning with the other, when a Weta latched itself onto my holding on arm.
I hate these creatures and reacted accordingly.Letting go,loosing my balance of course and you know the result.Not as exciting as jumping out of a moving plane, but funny anyway.
Pic of Weta attached just in case you have no idea what I'm on about.

NZ Weta.jpg

10/5/08 Thanks for all your kind thoughts. Have been out of the cast for some weeks now but have had complications - all the muscles and ligaments ceased up but I'm making progress with the help of physio. Its been going on so long now that I am fed up and itching to get back to my garden properly.
The final decision for the centrepiece on the potager is a Gazebo yet to be chosen. We have bought in two loads of shell
for the footpaths, just need some time and good weather to get that job done.
Sorry can't help with the soybeans Gordon but will look out for info for you. Good luck with the tomatoes.
Jack your autumn photos are amazing.Seeing them makes me wish I had had the forethought to plant more - must do.
Great to hear from you all again
_________________
Goose

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.-
Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Another autumn

Author: jack two
Subject: Sunday's walk (continued)
Posted: 10 May '08 4:49 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 29

In the rather lengthy business of sharing Sunday's walk, I am now on the opposite side of the dam (lake - I really wish I could get into calling it a lake. But it aint quite... it's too small!)(and too big for a pond) (Oh shut up,Jack)

These first pics look back towards the four liquodambers which form the central view to the right from my house, so I am at the upper reaches of the dam on the opposite side. (yeh, sure, that makes sense!)

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Another autumn

Author: jack two
Subject: Dearest MacFlax
Posted: 10 May '08 4:06 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 29

(he said sternly) You have been dropping little pearls all around the forum, on one occasion you even googled some really useful information. You have become one of us, yet we hardly know you. Please, please,please fill us in on the (?) Scottish New Zealander!

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: jack two
Subject: Hi there, Gardening Goose!
Posted: 10 May '08 3:58 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

(Thats as opposed to Moose Goose.) And if that doesn't make sense to some readers, don't worry. Even when I've explained it won't!

I can't believe its over a year since I saw your thread... I never saw the last potager pics. I was still on walks for elderly parents. Then you go breaking your foot. OOPS: wake-up call! (I was worried about three of the four old people in my life in January. It was a fifth who died... but strangely, as I worried, I thought: one well aimed car/ burglar's bullet and I pre-decease them anyway. What a business life is! Hope you are mending fast. What happened? Or is there another thread I have missed?

Have you made any final-final decisions on the centre-piece? (I'm a great believer in final decisions which predate the final-final - and inevitably that one is simpler than the mere-smere final versions!)

Good luck as you hop along!

General Gardening Chat :: RE: Keeping track of Moosey's Autumn

Author: jack two
Subject: ;-))
Posted: 9 May '08 7:05 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 3

If you look at my latest pics, you will see how much my liquodambers differ. Considering that the entire avenue was grown from the seed of one tree, and I seem to remember three of the four liquodambers near my house from that same batch, you will realise how much variety there is between trees and even times of turning. Several of our trees were green and yellow I would say by mid-March, but liquodambers are considered to be the most spectacular and long-seasoned of all autumn trees in SA. Interestingly the amazing colours are repeated year after year, branch for branch. The first branch to turn remains so, the purple remains so, the predominantly orange or yellow tree remains so...

My advice to you is to plant at least 20 more liquodambers!!!

Thanks for the answer about enfilades... in gardens our size I think there is less of a problem with conflicting focal points than in a small and over-manicured one. Which reminds me - how are things with the 'Best Mess award'?

As for the seasons - bear in mind that although at high altitude, I am only 50km south of the Tropic of Capricorn; day length must play a considerable role in the seasons, and our changes aren't nearly as dramatic as yours. We had the slightest touch of frost for a few nights in mid-April, but I don't think the last three nights have dipped below 10 degrees - rather warmer than yours I would think!

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: MacFlax
Posted: 9 May '08 6:29 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

Hello Goose. I hope you'll be well again very soon.

General Gardening Chat :: RE: New

Author: MacFlax
Posted: 9 May '08 6:25 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 3

Hi Greenthumb! Love the sunset.

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Another autumn

Author: MacFlax
Posted: 9 May '08 6:23 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 29

Quercoholic, I like that.
I just want to walk into that fourth picture and sit down.

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: gordonf
Subject: Broken Feet = Unhappy Gardeners
Posted: 9 May '08 5:51 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

Hi, Goose!

It's good to hear from you again! Sorry to hear about the broken foot, but I'm glad to hear that it's healing well. And at least with the rain that you're getting, I guess you aren't wanting to be out in the garden.

As for me, I've been out in my garden a lot over the last few days as we've finally been getting some decent weather here. I spent a couple of hours weeding on hands and knees today as well as planting up my "Pelargonium Post" with "Vancouver Centennial" geraniums again. I found that I was short one, so I'll have to get over to the garden centre tomorrow to buy another plant.

I traded a huge piece of my black bamboo for a couple of bags of mushroom compost today, so I'll be able to get the tomato plants out in compost in the cold frame tomorrow. That way they will be protected from the very cool nights that we're still getting. Also, I'll be away for the long weekend a week from now (back up to the Interior for the Planting Festival) and while I have someone checking in on the garden, the tomatoes need a bit of extra care! This year I'm growing Black Krim purple tomatoes and Padova tomatoes, which are rather like Romas on steroids!

I've also been painting walls in preparation for selling the place to move to the Interior. When I finally get a place there, I think I'd like to try growing millet and soybeans, but I don't know much about the cultivation of either one. If anyone has a favourite variety of soybeans, please let me know so I have a starting point for my search for information about them!

Well, that's it from me for today! Do take care of that foot so it heals quickly! When do you expect to get the cast off??

Cheers!

gordonf
_________________
Happy Collector:

Stay calm,
Be brave,
Wait for the signs!

My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: moosey
Posted: 9 May '08 5:26 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

How great to hear from you again, Goose. Hope you're well and soon will be truly back on both feet.

Do you know - perennials are funny plants. When I first 'discovered' them I thought they were wonderful. But lately I can see that many perennials make rather a lot of work. I have my favourites, but I'm not as keen on great swathes of them, in for example a perennial border, as I was. Staking, and dividing, all takes time, and trimming in autumn, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, I'm in a spring bulbs mood. that's what I'm busy planting at the moment. You'll enjoy your new orchard delights when spring comes around! Happy gardening, Cheers, M
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Mooseys Garden Guest Book :: RE: New,

Author: moosey
Posted: 9 May '08 2:26 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 1

Thanks, greenthumb - good name, by the way, we'll all be asking for your advice! Welcome.
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General Gardening Chat :: RE: Keeping track of Moosey's Autumn

Author: moosey
Subject: Enfilades, Subsiduary Focal Points, and Autumn
Posted: 9 May '08 2:25 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 3

Thanks heaps for your support, Jack. And sorry to get in a gloomy world mood. I'm probably watching too much TV news.

Our autumn could catch up with yours, and even overtake. Obviously the relationship doesn't need to be linear - we could even oscillate, though the algebra could look rather fierce. Mid-April to mid-May can be our most windless weeks of the year, and I guess that some NZ gardeners (and outdoors adventuresses) get caught up in a rosy haze - what bad weather? What southerly storm? What cold frosts?

Anyway, this word 'enfilade'. Oh dear. It looks like something yummy you'd order off a menu. I think the book said it's a view within a view. A view of a view? A view which is in itself a view - of another view? Anyway it sounds extremely applicable to analytical essays on photographic compositions, desperately trying to get at least a B+ grade.

A bit like subsiduary focal points. Now there's something you need to know about. One of these could easily turn up in an enfilade, and if you've got one and it's competing with the main one, you'd better look out! Hee hee.

I have one liquidamber - it's odd, the leaves are still 95% green and 5% yellow. That probably means that our autumn is back 2 weeks later than yours, where it should be? Can you remember how many weeks ago your liquid amber trees had this proportion of green-to-yellow? Your leaf colour is amazing.

Great talking with you, and thanks for the cheer-up. It worked!
M
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General Gardening Chat :: RE: New

Author: moosey
Subject: welcome
Posted: 9 May '08 2:01 pm (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 3

Welcome, welcome, and we'd love to peep at the best bits of your garden. You get to show off all those lovely spring and early summer things to those of us (in the southern hemisphere at least) who are starting to cope with winter. Brr!

Cheers, M
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General Gardening Chat :: RE: New

Author: faerisweet
Subject: welcome greenthumb,
Posted: 9 May '08 10:37 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 3

beautiful sunset btw. Love to hear about your garden, my husband lived in Portland in his youth, small world.
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My Garden Diaries :: RE: Goose's Garden

Author: goose
Subject: Garden Report
Posted: 9 May '08 9:31 am (GMT 12)
Topic Replies: 43

I didn't realise it had been so long since I posted on this thread. Jack, not much to report, the garden has been growing on its own since I broke my foot.I have done a few easy jobs but nothing much.I have managed to keep the potager looking ok and kept on top of the picking,freezing, bottling etc of the fruit and veges. I'm having physio but still hobbling around, it is improving slowly but its so frustrating, everything takes twice as long to do.
Havent been able to go for walks so no pics have been taken this summer/autumn.
The front perennial garden is such a mess, its hard to tell where the grass stops and the garden begins. I bought some old bricks (900 odd) on the Trade Me Internet auction. It took three trips for NGP & I to get them home. I have started to lay them as an edging and hopefully this will help cut down the work a bit. It will be a long slow job.
I have planted out lots of bulbs in the orchard area, so hopefully that will look great in spring. Iris, daffs,snow flakes and bluebells.
Well thats about it. Its pouring with rain again so I don't think much will get done today.
_________________
Goose

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.-
Ralph Waldo Emerson